Scholarships on tap for sched/dispatchers

The Schedulers and Dispatchers Committee is encouraging aviation professionals to apply for a portion of the $25,000 in scholarship money provided by sponsors ExxonMobil, Avitat, Signature Flight Support, Million Air, Air Routing and Universal Weather and Aviation.

“Any person who is currently working in aviation is eligible for these scholarships,” said S&D committee chairwoman Elizabeth Larson, who indicated that the scholarships weren’t only for full-time students. “Last year we awarded seven scholarships, one of which went to someone just working on their instrument rating.”

Check the Web Site

Scholarship applications are available on the NBAA Web site. Applications must be submitted to NBAA by November 30. The scholarships will be awarded at the 2002 Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference to be held Jan. 13 to 16, 2002, in Orlando, Fla.

The upcoming conference will include a change from the Tuesday to Thursday format to a new Monday to Wednesday format. “The old format nearly required attendees to be out of their offices all week,” said Larson. “This new format now allows travel on Sunday and Wednesday night, so people can spend the last two days of the week in their offices if necessary.” The annual conference, which attracted about 1,100 attendees last year, is actually the second largest conference/con- vention organized solely by NBAA, with the annual NBAA Convention itself being the largest. (The first EBACE meeting in April this year attracted more people–3,620 registrants to be exact– but it is a joint event of NBAA and the European Business Aviation Association.)

An update by the S&D Training subcommittee will bring the committee meeting attendees up to date on the Scheduler Professional Development Program (SPDP), a segment of NBAA’s PDP devoted to schedulers.

NBAA Air Mail Encouraged

“Although you can get a dispatcher license, currently there is no license or certification for schedulers,” said Larson. “The SPDP was put together as a way of keeping schedulers trained. At the end of the program, schedulers receive a recognition that they have received this training.”

Larson also said the committee wants to encourage NBAA members to use the organization’s Air Mail system. A series of e-mail mailing lists, or “users groups,” set aside for collaboration and discussions on topics of interest to business aircraft operators, NBAA Air Mail contains a Schedulers and Dispatchers group that can be used to communicate with fellow members. Any e-mail message sent to an Air Mail list address is broadcast to everyone on that list. Air Mail messages are also archived on NBAA’s Web site.